India Vs Pakistan: Enemy Vs Patriotism Vs Cricket!

What happened in Pahalgam on 22nd April, 2025 is beyond words that can condemn the terrorist act enough. It rages through your blood stream, it tortures your mind and infuriates you with helpless wrath. India mirrored that rage through Operation Sindoor, striking the terrorists' hubs inside Pakistan. The Government of India mentioned time and again that the Operation was aimed at destroying terror, and that it was not a strike against the country or its people. And the Indian Army did exactly that. 

The problem is that the terrorists there have always been proven to be actively in league with the Pak army and this unholy alliance controls and directs effectively the Government policy and political strategy. An elected government technically represents the people and therefore the people of Pakistan need not necessarily think about India any differently than their government, and this means that the Indian fury cannot get limited only against the terrorists. It encompasses the whole of Pakistan as an enemy state and normal relations are never maintained between enemy countries. Normal relations definitely have to include sports which includes cricket too. 

Therefore, although people to people relations or thoughts may not emit enmity of the highest order, as two neighboring but enemy states India and Pakistan cannot maintain cricket relations either. In fact, it has been India's strategy to stop all bilateral cricket matches since 2008 after the horrific Mumbai terror attack. The situation becomes complex in regard to international tournaments where there is no choice to choose your rivals--either you play per the schedule or don't participate at all. As a major cricketing nation of the world India cannot possibly stay away from the ICC tournaments: first, the competitive international ranking and position issues; the ardent fans of both the countries who constantly rue the fact that there haven't been many matches between the celebrated archrivals; and last but the most crucial is the big money involved in these sought-after encounters that the two cricket boards and the ICC too cannot afford to miss out on.

A solution to the issue was found through the concept of neutral venues where the two rivals can meet and the millions of fans can also enjoy on their TVs/Computers/mobiles and the cricket boards can rake in the dough. However, in the ICC World Cups the host nations, whoever that may be, must have all the teams playing there; and in fact, Pakistan came to India in 2023 and played all their matches including against India while India never went to Pakistan since 2008 which is due more to the security concerns there than the enmity between the two countries. Thanks to the same concerns the ICC had to shift Ind-Pak matches in the Champions Trophy-2025 to neutral venues even as the host nation Pakistan fretted and fumed. Our point here is that there'd always been a way out to hold the encounters between the archrivals. 

The Pahalgam carnage changed all that. Fury gave rise to a sense of poignant and almost a jingoistic patriotism that shows zero tolerance to any sort of relations with Pakistan including cricket, seemingly riding over their own cricket fandom. The patriotism got reflected in a cricket league recently where the Indian cricketers refused to play with the Pak players. 

And yet, the cash-powered Indian cricket board, BCCI, decided to go ahead with the India-Pakistan matches in the upcoming Asia Cup-2025 with the host nation India judiciously selecting UAE for the tournament. Accordingly, the media has taken up their usual practice of hyping up the matches with spicy promos and all that. In recent years we often came across ads/headlines describing Ind-Pak matches as 'War' or even cricket 'World War'. But at this delicate juncture the Indian fans are not at all reacting to this kindly or with spirit.

Opposition against the archrivals' matches has been rising to a crescendo among the public in India: the BCCI is being condemned and shamed; divisions being created across cricketers & veterans; and the Indian fans threatening to boycott the whole tournament. 

It is often felt that politics and sports should never be mixed up. However, as we argued earlier, the feelings in India are far from being any part of their country's politics. It's the hurt and the patriotic fervor that's been driving them to vehemently shun what they like most under tolerably normal circumstances. So, we feel the sentiments of the people should be respected, and the BCCI must act accordingly, looking away from the 'big-money' angle for once or the Indian Government must come into the act forcing the autonomous board to comply. We also hope Pakistan sees sense in moving away from terror permanently, thus paving the way for normal relations in the near future. 

And in case, the Asia Cup 2025 does unfold as scheduled, it'd be immensely interesting to observe if the patriotic fans do finally manage to go ahead with their boycott threat or fall prey to the high-voltage 'war' of cricket. As if the Trump Tariff madness were not enough! 

Imran Khan: Defiance, Diplomacy And Friendships Of The Unconstitutional Kind!

Imran Khan became the first ever Prime Minister of Pakistan to be voted out of power through a no-confidence motion after a daylong high-voltage drama yesterday that finally culminated in a midnight climax in Islamabad. Perhaps this is the reason as to why the Pakistan parliamentary system had never been used to such political games behind a confidence move unlike in India where such games are very common and often the transfers of power are more or less smooth; Pakistan being more used to army coups and abrupt, often violent, changes. However, the delaying tactics indulged in by Imran and team were not at all constitutional. The irony gets more emphatic as Imran Khan was a democratically elected Prime Minster in 2018 general elections. The monthlong political theatrics had seemingly ended on 7^thApril when the Supreme Court of the country ordered the confidence motion to take place on 9^th April thus reconstituting the dissolved National Assembly. But Imran had other ideas still.

 

His defiance has been phenomenal, not bothering about the constitution or even about the directions of the Supreme Court. On the historic day of 9^th April 2022, termed by many as a sad day for Pakistan democracy, the National Assembly reconvened as ordered, but the motion was not introduced. Imran Khan directed his foreign minister to ask the Speaker for a debate on the foreign conspiracy, and as a result the session was adjourned repeatedly with the opposition having unsuccessful parleys with the Speaker to introduce the motion as ordered by the apex court.

 

Imran stuck to his foreign conspiracy theory even after clarifying in his second national address on 7^th April that the supposed ‘secret cyphered letter’ could not be shared in public as it’d then compromise national security. He, however, said that he’d share in with the Supreme Court. All throughout he openly implicated America as the perpetrator of the conspiracy thus delivering a vital blow to the country’s bilateral relations with the US which is totally contrary to normal international diplomacy apart from his earlier indiscretion of visiting Russia during Ukraine invasion. He also stuck to his praise of India’s non-compromising foreign policy which also would make him unpopular among various Pakistan circles in near future. Imran appealed to the people to come out on the streets and start a revolution in protest against the ‘horse trading traitors’ who were welcoming slavery of a foreign super power again might which might eventually lead to unrest and violence in the country, already on the brink of a looming economic crisis.

 

Contrary to his resolve to play on till the last ball Imran in actuality evaded not only the last ball but the full over yesterday. He did not show his sportsmanship of yore as he never visited the National Assembly along with his PTI supporters and instead, kept on making the unconstitutional moves sitting at his residence. He called for a cabinet meet in the evening and also planned to file a review petition in the Court.

 

From late evening things started happening in quick succession as it was apparent that the Supreme Court deadline was going to be breached. The Chief Justice ordered the doors of the Court to be opened for a midnight review, and the local police began posting forces including a prisoner van in front of the parliament house. The ghosts of a case of the contempt of court, imminent police arrests and a possible Army intervention finally convinced the Speaker to reconvene the session minutes before midnight. And, more appalling scenes were in store.

 

It was unbelievable to behold an almost crying Speaker of the National Assembly demonstrating the ‘foreign conspiracy’ letter before the members and stating emotionally that he had been a worker of the PTI (Imran’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) for decades along with a deep friendship with Imran over the last decades, and that was why he could not betray his leader. He resigned then and there. His Deputy who was delaying the no-confidence vote on 3^rd April followed suit. So then, personal friendships came in the way of observing the sacred democratic and constitutional norms. The newly assigned Speaker occupied the chair now and he introduced the motion moments before midnight.

 

The laboriously manual counting process went for more than an hour, and finally, the results were declared that the motion was passed with 174 votes in favor and none against as the PTI members were not present and the defecting 22 PTI members also did not vote in fear of being disqualified. In the meantime, Imran Khan vacated his official PM residence and shifted to his private residence.

 

The National Assembly is set to continue its full five-year term and the new Prime Minister designate Shehbaz Sharif, the younger brother of the three-time Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, of the PML-N (Nawaz’ Pakistan Muslim League-N) party to take over charge tomorrow, Monday, the 11^th of April 2022. The 70-year-old Shehbaz Sharif, the three-time Chief Minister of Punjab, does not however have a clean record as he was arrested for money laundering in 2020.

 

Pakistan is looking at an uncertain future, because it is not sure how long the coalition government with PML-N and PPP (Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party) political parties plus the PTI defectors would last as they have a lot of differences on various issues. Of course, the first priority for the new government would naturally be setting the damaged international diplomacy right apart from taking on the economic crisis. Further, the cries of the PTI supporters like ‘bringing back the looters’ or ‘a good man sent home’ combined with the thousands of Imran supporters seen on the streets in Lahore last night are not going to augur well for Pakistan’s secure democratic future. We hope another neighbor of India does not go the Sri Lanka way. 

Pakistan Supreme Court Hits The Imran Khan Foreign-Hand Bouncer For A Six!

The high-voltage political drama in Pakistan has seemingly ended today with the Supreme Court of the country dismissing Prime Minister Imran Khan’s decisions to dissolve the National Assembly and holding general elections within 90 days that he announced moments before the no-confidence motion on 3^rd April 2022. The Court held the decision of the Deputy Speaker of Pakistan National Assembly to reject the motion quoting the constitution as illegal. The Court has now fixed the date for the no-confidence motion against Imran Khan on Saturday, the 9^th of April by reconstituting the National Assembly. The no-confidence motion was brought by the opposition alliance on 8^th March and the date for the motion was postponed to Sunday, the 3^{rd of} April. It has been apparent since the beginning that Imran Khan’s government was reduced to a minority with many of the members of his own party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) defecting to the opposition.

 

In an emotional address to the nation on 1^st April Prime Minister Imran Khan hinted at a ‘foreign conspiracy’ to dethrone him from power and appealed to the people of Pakistan to defeat this in national interest. He also said that like in cricket he’d continue till the last ball is bowled. This ‘foreign hand’ theory, apparently implicating the US, has been termed widely by the international media as ‘Imran’s bouncer or googly’ and the full strength of his ‘bouncer’ stunned the world when he announced his crucial decisions moments before the confidence vote. However, the Supreme Court today has hit it out of the boundary.

 

The opposition party leader Bilawal Bhutto Zardari questioned the decision of the Deputy Speaker as unconstitutional and appealed to the apex court to give its verdict on the constitutional crisis. In the following days the election commission of the country said that it was not possible to hold elections in 90 days and then, more significantly, the Pak Army termed the ‘foreign hand’ conspiracy as not true.

 

Nobody could ever forget Imran Khan, the fiery fast bowler of yore who took the world of cricket by storm and captained and led the Pakistan cricket team to the only victory in the ICC Cricket World Cup in1992. Imran had been the cynosure of cricket lovers thanks to his handsome athletic physique, his bowling action and his never-say-die attitude. He has also been having numerous relationships and several wives, often leading to controversies. After retirement from cricket, he entered politics forming his own political party, the PTI in 1996, got elected into the National Assembly in 2002 and served the opposition till 2007.

 

After many ups and downs in the following years Imran Khan’s PTI won the elections in 2018 and he became the Prime Minister of Pakistan that year. His policies and actions, particularly his relations with India, have not been anything to write home about and he was often criticized by other political parties. His political career is now set to be decided on 9^th April, 2022. As a self-professed fighter till the last ball Imran Khan is definitely not going to say quits after the no-confidence vote which is almost decided against him. His nationalism and personal charisma would possibly continue to attract some followers. After the near-certain defeat of the present government on 9^th April there would be an opposition-led interim government in the country with Imran Khan in the opposition till the general elections are held.